“When it's details and work ethic, things we can control, those things should never, ever happen.''

Babcock is particularly disturbed by needless offensive-zone penalties. His team took two in Tuesday's 4-1 loss to the Calgary Flames. He said the issue was addressed heading into Thursday's game at St. Louis.

“Why would you shoot yourself in the foot?'' Babcock said. “You can say on a lot of those penalties, as a player, 'Oh, that's a cheap call.' You're in the box or you're not in the box, real simple to me. The bottom line is, you got an offensive-zone penalty.

“(Daniel Cleary) got two (Tuesday). We took a tough one (by Kyle Quincey) that put us down five-on-three. You're digging yourself out of a hole. We have to look after that.''

Players no longer can get away with putting their sticks on an opponent's glove.

“Obviously, the rules are a little bit different, but that's no excuse,'' defenseman Niklas Kronwall said. “It's the same thing for everybody. Me and the rest of the guys need to do a better job of staying out of the box because it's costing us too much.''

Kronwall leads the club with 10 minor penalties and Cleary has nine.

“Stick down, move your feet,'' Kronwall said. “We're shorting out the bench as far as who's playing on the PK and stuff like that.''

Said forward Justin Abdelkader: “They're calling it tight and we got to adjust to the new rules, all the stick penalties.''

The Red Wings ranked 28th in penalty killing (69.8 percent) before Wednesday's games. They have been particularly bad on the road (10-for-18 on kills, 55.6 percent).

"We need to be more organized,'' Kronwall said. “Sometimes, I think we're thinking too much instead of just going out there and staying on our toes, being aggressive. Sometimes, we're a step behind."

Said Abdelkader: “Just got to bear down a little bit more on our clears, make sure every puck goes 200 feet and we don't have any turnovers. And try to get in the shooting lanes and block shots.''